Archive for the ‘Canada West’ Category

Since our last communication, published in the Review of August 7, we have been holding meetings in Springfield, Mass., Berlin and Middletown, Ct.

Our meetings in Berlin continued over two Sabbaths. The weather was very favorable, so that both First-days quite a number came to hear, and some appeared anxious to know the truth. At our first meeting a colored preacher from Upper Canada attended, and added his testimony in favor of a closer walk with God. He is lecturing in the State of Connecticut, to obtain means to ameliorate the condition of our oppressed countrymen, escaped from the slave power of our boasted land of freedom, who have found a refuge from their cruel bondage in the British dominions. When about to leave he declared himself fully settled in the belief of the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and said he should teach it. He was supplied with a few such books as he desired, and said he should pass through Rochester, N.Y., on his way to Canada, and call at the office for the Review. Thank the Lord, that he is qualifying teachers who have influence with this class of our fellow men who are now free, and have the privilege to keep the weekly Sabbath of the Bible when they hear it taught…

DEAR BRO. WHITE :—I feel that the truth is good, and I desire to have the whole truth. Christ has given us the blessed assurance that if we continue in his word, we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. The law of God is a “law of liberty,” or freedom, to those who are delivered from its condemnation, through Jesus Christ, and are not forgetful hearers but doers of the work. But I do not envy the freedom of those who think that the phrase “law of liberty,” implies a liberty to break God’s law.— They are the persons that are entangled in a “yoke of bondage.”

I am glad that the word informs us that God will have a people that will be “alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord.” Thank the Lord; he has a people on the earth. And when I look around to find them, I confess the search is vain, till my eye rests upon the remnant who ‘keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Glory to God! I see his people coming from all places, whither they have been driven, in the dark and cloudy day, and rallying around the standard raised by the third angel. These are the people that are going to Mount Zion, and I want to go with them.

I have visited a portion of Canada West, in company with Bro. Lindsey. We found a few brethren in Mariposa, Reach and Whitby, who are striving to let their light shine amidst the surrounding darkness. May the Lord bless them, and give them grace according to their circumstances. We had not calculated on a sufficient length of time to visit all the scattered brethren in C, W., and as we were there with a sleigh, and the prospect for sleighing was doubtful, we hastened homeward. We regret that we were not prepared to visit all the scattered flock in that country, and also that our visit in Whitby was so short. We found some in the vicinity of St. Catharines who seem desirous to gain the kingdom. They showed no disposition to oppose the truth, but rather seemed convicted. May they, in the strength of the Lord, take a bold stand in favor of the truth. May all the remnant keep in that humble place where the Lord can bless them. Let us not be lifted up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Let nothing take our eyes from the prize at the end of tho race. In hope of immortality, R. F. COTTHELL.

Though a stranger to you, personally, yet I rejoice to say that I feel familiarly acquainted with the spirit you seem to manifest in that very welcome Paper which you send to me. Unless I am entirely mistaken in regard to what the Spirit of my blessed Jesus is, it is a very prominent characteristic of the principal writers of the Review. And my prayer is that nothing which savors of a contrary spirit may ever find a place in its columns.

As it was sent me free of charge, it is certainly due from me, at least, to say that it has been read with pleasure, and I trust with profit, and I feel to praise God for the light of the present truth that shines into my soul, although I feel to be a lonely pilgrim here.

In St. Peter’s time there was a present truth, or a truth applicable to that time. The Church has ever had a present truth. The present truth now is that which shows present duty, and the right position for us, who are about to witness the time of trouble such as never was.

Present truth must be oft repeated, even to those who are established in it. This was needful in the Apostle’s day, and it certainly is no less important for us, who, are living just before the close of time. Obedience to the truth will kill us to this world, that we may be made alive by faith in Jesus. “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” John xvii, 17. This was the prayer of Jesus.” I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth.” 3 John 4. Error darkens and fetters the mind ; but the truth brings with it freedom, and gives light and life. True charity, or love, rejoiceth in the truth. Cor. xiii, 6. “Thy law is the truth.” Ps. cxix, 142. David describing the day of slaughter, when the ” pestilence shall walk in darkness, and destruction waste at noonday,” so that “a thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand,” says,: “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” Ps. xci, 4.

Now is the time, the only time, to seek a shelter in the truth of the living God. What is done to spread the truth, must be done quickly. The four angels are holding the angry nations in check but a few days, until the saints are sealed. Then it will be too late to spread before precious souls the present saving truths of the Holy Bible. May God help them to receive the truth, and be established in it, is my prayer.

JAMES HILBORN.

Oakwood, C. W., Jan., 1853.

(Present day Oakwood resides between Lakes Scugog and Simcoe along Highway 7.)

DEAR BRO. WHITE: Since our last from Toronto, (C. W.) as published in the ” Review and Herald” No. 10, we have accomplished the circuit around Lake Ontario.

From the various places we visited, from Kingston (C. W.) to this place, we left more than one hundred interested in the present truth, many of which confessed that. the Sabbath of the Lord our God was clear, and began to keep it in connection with those that had embraced it at an earlier period. More than fifty, as you will see by the list of names, are anxious to receive the paper. Many also confessed that they see no light coming from the various positions now occupied and presented by the professed leading Adventists, while the third angel’s message looked clear and unobjectionable.

We now expect to leave here in the morning for Ulyses, Allegheny County, Penn., embracing in our way Batavia, Mill Grove. Buffalo, Fredonia, Busti, and other places in this state as the way opens, and if the Lord will, reach Ulyses in time to spend the last Sabbath and first day in Feb. in conference with the brethren in that place, and the next week following in Bath, N. Y.

While we were in Canada West one of the brethren showed us an ancient translation of the New Testament, that was so mutilated that we could not learn when it was published or who translated it. We thought that 2 Cor. iii, 3, 4, 6-18, was much to the point. The following is a copy.

2 Cor. Chap. Iii, 3, 4, 6–18.

Verse 3. ” For it is apparent to the world that you are Christ’s epistle written by our ministration, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God— inscribed not on tables of stone, but on the tablets of the human heart.

4. ” Such is the firm confidence we repose thro’ Christ in the supreme being,

6. ” Who hath empowered and qualified us to be. ministers of the new covenant, not the Mosaic, but the Christian covenant—for the Mosaic pronounced an irreversable. sentence of death upon its transgressors; but the Christian covenant holds forth the palm of immortality.

7. ” But if the dispensation which annexed death to the violation of it, and whose laws were engraven on stones, was ushered in with such magnificence and splendor (a splendor that was only designed to be transcient and temporary) that the eyes of the Israelites could not support the dazzling beams that darted from the countenance of Moses,

8. ” How much more glorious and effulgent must be the lustre of the Christian dispensation.

9. “For if that rigid and implacable dispensation which condemned the offender to death by an irreversable sentence, was introduced with such striking pomp and glory, how infinitely superior must be the strong and ineffable radiance of that dispensation which is replete with benignity arid mercy,

10. “But in this respect the glory that was reflected on the former dispensation vanishes into no- thing when compared with the superior splendor of the latter.

11. ” For if that economy which was destined to be superceded and annulled, was delivered with such an ostentatious display of grandeur—how much more glorious must be that economy which is de- signed to be forever durable and permanent.

12. “Animated therefore with these hopes, we use great freedom and liberty in our addresses.

13. ” We are not like Moses who covered himself with a vail—so that the children of Israel could not clearly see the end and design of a dispensation which was intended to he abrogated:

14. ” But their rational faculties were involved in the mists of darkness—for to the present day that very vail which Christ hath removed and forever abolished continues to enwrap their minds when they read the old testament; and still shrouds their under- standings in the baleful shades of obscurity and gloom.

15. “To this very day when the law of Moses is read by them, the vail remains upon their hearts.

16. ” But when the- Jews”shall be converted to the Lord, the vail that now involves and obscures their minds, shall be forever removed

17. “By being converted to the Lord I mean being converted to the spiritual institution of the gospel—and where this spiritual dispensation of God is, there is the truest liberty.

18. But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord reflected as from the brightest mirror are metamorphosed into the same moral resemblance ; receiving continual accessions of glory and splendor, emitted from the great indefectible source of spiritual light.

DEAR BRO. WHITE : Since I started, in Oct. last, on my western tour, I have visited many places in western N. Y. Held protracted meetings in several places with our Sabbath brethren, who are loving the present truth more and more. In many planes we found the brethren in deep trials; but prayer, and perseverance in the strait truths that the little flock, now see in their pathway soon triumphed over the Enemy, and our hearts were made glad and healed by the precious saving truths in the third angel’s message.

Bro. Edson met me at Auburn. N. Y. We crossed the St. Lawrence, for Canada West, the last week in Nov., and have been working our way to the west, along the south shore of Lake Ontario, and where-ever we have learned that there were scattered sheep in the back settlements north of us, we have waded through the deep snow from two to forty miles to find them, and give the present truth; so that in five weeks we have traveled hundreds of miles, and gained on the direct road westward one hundred eighty miles, We expect, to close our labors here by the 5th, and then go north again to Lake Sincoe. where we learn there are some of the scattered flock. From thence it is probable we shall we shall pass on the same course westward to the borders of Lake Huron and Erie. When we have finished our labors between these seas, we expect to return towards Rochester, N. Y.

The, first twenty days of our journey we were much tried with the deep snow, and tedious cold weather, and with but few exceptions cold and impenetrable hearts. The truth was no food for them. Since that time the scene has changed and the truth begun to take effect, and some we trust are now searching for the truth. At Mariposa and Scewgog Lakes, thirty and forty miles in the back settlements, and about sixty from here, we found many hungry for the truth. Their minister, (Peter Hough,) objected to our message, and labored hard to do away the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and called upon his congregation to decide, concluding that his arguments were clear. About twelve out of twenty enlisted under the banner of the third angel, while but two I believe shewed a sign in his favor. The rest we left in a deep study, saying, they would examine the subject.

In Reach, eight more confessed the whole truth, and three other families admitted the Sabbath to be right. In both of these places they are united in their monthly meetings. Their meetings were appointed for the last Sabbath. They have hopes of their other brethren, because they know them to be honest. These two companies of brethren and sisters seem strong and united, and remind me very much of the Melbourn and Eaton companies in Canada East, that were so prompt and decided to move out on the Lord’s side as soon as the truth was presented.

You will see by the list of names for the paper, and also other names that we send in with those, that they are hungering and thirsting for the truth in the last message. We believe that God has precious jewels in Canada West. We have no misgivings about this being the field of our labor for the present. O, God speed the work of gathering the 144,000 here, and all over the field. Amen.